China has called reported comments by President Joe Biden describing Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a dictator “extremely absurd and irresponsible.”

Sean Hannity took to X to describe 'how bad' it was in 'blue cities' by bringing up Austin PD's understaffing issue

A stargazer who thought he’d made the discovery of a lifetime was brought down to Earth with a bump when a crater apparently left by a meteorite was revealed to be nothing more than a hole dug by beach-goers. Astrophysics enthusiast Dave Kennedy was over the moon when the hole, several feet wide and deep, appeared in north Dublin. He felt sure that a small, black, heavy rock found at the bottom of the hole was an asteroid from outer space, and contacted various astronomy experts in an effort to confirm his theory. He said a scorch mark on one side of the rock showed the angle at which it had fallen. “Only a month ago, I was watching a documentary from Nasa on exactly what we’re looking at so when I looked at it and saw how uniform it is, and the vast crater, I knew immediately I was looking at an impact site,” he said. Visitors to the Portmarnock beach gathered to inspect the crater. One said: “We’re down here quite a lot and never seen anything like this before, so it’s pretty spectacular.” However, Mr Kennedy’s optimism was short-lived. Within a day of his appearance on Virgin Media News, a “context note” on X (formerly Twitter) compiled from user information read: “It is in fact not a cosmic event - instead it was dug out the day before by 2 lads with a beach spade.” Footage on social media posted by friends of the young men showed them sitting in the hole, digging it out with children’s spades, and was captioned: “The hole we dug on Saturday”. Although the astronomy enthusiast was widely mocked, he said he would still have the rock analysed in the hope it wasn’t a “completely fruitless discovery”, Virgin Media News reported. Research on the chances of asteroids hitting Earth has focused on much larger rocks. Astronomers say Earth probably will not be struck by an object 1km wide (0.6 miles) for at least 1,000 years – but they have not ruled out smaller meteorites landing before then. Read More 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite sheds light on early solar system – study Best beach stays in the UK and Ireland for a peaceful break in 2023 Ukraine war: Kyiv ‘is pushing Russia back’, UK’s most senior military officer says War-blinded Ukrainian soldier cries with joy at new love at his wedding Ukraine ‘holds initiative’ in counteroffensive against Russia, says UK military chief

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON United Airlines on Thursday said it will improve air travel for passengers using wheelchairs

Kansas remained at No. 1 in the first Associated Press men's college basketball poll of the season

Fans of the 'Jersey Shore' star Angelina Pivarnick believe she was let go from the show after she admitted to 'losing' her MTV paycheck

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 8, 2023--

Ghana’s pension funds are close to agreeing to a deal to restructure $2.6 billion worth of government bonds

After the US Supreme Court struck down his administration’s plan to cancel federal student loan debts for millions of Americans, President Joe Biden has unveiled a “new path” for relief, one that he assured is “legally sound” but will “take longer”. In remarks from the White House on 30 June, the president hit out at Republican state officials and legislators who supported the lawsuit which enabled the nation’s highest court to strike down his student debt forgiveness initiative, accusing many of them of hypocrisy for taking money from pandemic-era relief programs while opposing relatively meager relief for student loan borrowers. “Some of the same elected Republicans, members of Congress who strongly opposed relief for students, got hundreds of thousands of dollars themselves ... several members of Congress got over a million dollars — all those loans are forgiven,” he said. “The hypocrisy is stunning,” he said. Accompanied by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Mr Biden opened his remarks by acknowledging that there are likely “millions of Americans” who now “feel disappointed and discouraged or even a little bit angry about the court’s decision today on student debt”. “And I must admit, I do too,” he said. Still, Mr Biden reminded Americans that his administration has previously taken actions to reform student loan repayment programs to make them easier to access, and to keep borrowers from spending more than five per cent of disposable income on monthly repayments, and to strengthen loan forgiveness options for borrowers who take public service jobs. The president has directed Mr Cardona to “find a new way” to grant similar loan relief “as fast as we can” in a way that is “consistent” with the high court’s decision. On Friday, the Education Department issued the first step in the process of issuing new regulations under this so-called “negotiated rulemaking” process. In the mean time, Mr Biden said his administration is creating a temporary year-long “on-ramp repayment programme” under which conditions will remain largely the same as they have during the three-year pandemic-era pause in payments which is set to expire this fall. The department’s 12-month “on ramp” to begin repayments, from 1 October through 30 September, aims to prevent borrowers who miss repayments in that time period from delinquency, credit issues, default and referral to debt collection agencies. “During this period if you can pay your monthly bills you should, but if you cannot, if you miss payments, this on-ramp temporarily removes the threat of default,” he said. “Today’s decision closed one path. Now we’re going to pursue another — I’m never gonna stop fighting,” the president continued, adding that he will use “every tool” at his disposal to get Americans the student debt relief they need so they can “reach [their] dreams”. “It’s good for the economy. It’s good for the country. It’s gonna be good for you,” he said. Asked by reporters whether he’d given borrowers false hope by initiating the now-doomed forgiveness plan last year, Mr Biden angrily chided the GOP for having acted to take away the path to debt relief for millions. “I didn’t give any false hope. The question was whether or not I would do even more than was requested. What I did I felt was appropriate and was able to be done and would get done. I didn’t give borrowers false hope. But the Republicans snatched away the hope that they were given and it’s real, real hope,” he said. The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling from the conservative majority argues that the president does not have the authority to implement sweeping relief, and that Congress never authorised the administration to do so. Under the plan unveiled by the Biden administration last year, millions of people who took out federally backed student loans would be eligible for up to $20,000 in relief. Borrowers earning up to $125,000, or $250,000 for married couples, would be eligible for up to $10,000 of their federal student loans to be wiped out. Those borrowers would be eligible to receive up to $20,000 in relief if they received Pell grants. Roughly 43 million federal student loan borrowers would be eligible for that relief, including 20 million people who stand to have their debts cancelled completely, according to the White House. Lawyers for the Biden administration contended that he has the authority to broadly cancel student loan debt under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, which allows the secretary of education to waive or modify loan provisions following a national emergency – in this case, Covid-19. Since March 2020, with congressional passage of the Cares Act, monthly payments on student loan debt have been frozen with interest rates set at zero per cent. That pandemic-era moratorium, first enacted under Donald Trump and extended several times, was paused a final time late last year. Over the last decade, the student loan debt crisis has exploded to a balance of nearly $2 trillion, most of which is wrapped up in federal loans. The amount of debt taken out to support student loans for higher education costs has surged alongside growing tuition costs, increased private university enrollment, stagnant wages and GOP-led governments stripping investments in higher education and aid, putting the burden of college costs largely on students and their families. Read More Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s plan to cancel student loan debts Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action, banning colleges from factoring race in admissions Biden condemns Supreme Court striking down affirmative action: ‘This is not a normal court’ Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivers searing civil rights lesson in dissent to affirmative action ruling

'Looking back, I'm really proud of myself, but it was like it was blood, sweat, and tears,' said Halle Bailey

By Pavel Polityuk KYIV A Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Monday

Volodymyr Zelensky will travel in person to Japan for the Group of Seven (G7) summit, according to officials familiar with the planning, a stark display of confidence and Western solidarity as Ukraine's wartime leader tries to keep crucial support from allied nations flowing.